This week I was fortunate enough to be able to travel to our nation's capital to witness the historic signing of The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). I had a great time visiting with law-makers from all over the United States, but it was a particular delight to catch up with our very own senators from Iowa.

Family-friendly policies and work places can help Iowa employers attract and retain the best employees.
That’s good for our whole economy, and it’s why I’m focused on addressing the challenges working families face.
Childcare
Iowa needs to make afford-able, high-quality child care a reality for more families and providers.

Well, that was a game. As a very casual follower of football, I have say that this year's Super Bowl has been one of the better ones in recent memory.
The game was alright, with a truly spectacular fourth quarter.

Caucus time! How exciting. We were in the grocery store and met up with a long time acquaintance of Dawn. This nice lady visited with us for quite awhile reminiscing and then moving on to the current Iowa at the center of the uni-verse thing.
We learned that Jesus was a Democrat.

It is the second week of session and we are getting down to business. It has been fun being out on the floor; I get the chance to engage more with my colleagues and spend time with visitors who stop by. As Speaker, my day was filled with scheduled meetings, as many of you know. This session I get to enjoy more casual meetings. This week has been filled with meetings as legislators and stakeholders work on their legislative priorities.

Maternal health in Iowa is experiencing a crisis. Maternal mortality has increased at an alarming rate in recent years. Maternal deaths went from fewer than 15 in 2008 to almost 50 in 2019, according to Dr. Stephen Hunter, co-director for Perinatal Care at the Iowa Department of Public Health.
A big part of the problem is Iowa’s shrinking health care options and workforce:

In just a few more days it will be caucus time.
We're just about done, everybody. We made it through another season.
The phone calls will stop. The ads will stop. The door knockers will stop.
Iowa will make its decision and the rest of the country will go back to confusing us with Idaho for another two years.

I've been following with disinterest the Trump impeachment story.
Disinterest partly because in a republic tampering with the vote should be of little consequence because a vote should never change policy in such a way that it benefits one group over another. And partly be-cause the foreign aid in ques-tion should not exist in the first place.

The second half of the Eighty-Eighth General Assembly convened on Monday, Jan. 13, and we are all excited to get back to work. This year will be a change in pace for me.
Serving as Speaker of the Iowa House of Representatives was a tremendous honor and I am incredibly proud of the work the Iowa House accomplished during my tenure.

We kicked off the 2020 Legis-lative Session on Monday. I hope we will spend the next few months building a healthier, happier, safer and stronger Iowa for our families, friends and neighbors.

To the editor:
Thank you Hampton area. The Red Kettle program collected $7,443.21 this year, which was up from last year and the best total since I have been doing this. Thanks to all the bell ringers and especially Dawn and Fritz Grotzkruger for taking over this year. See you next year!
Ivan E. Lindloff,
Hampton

"A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad."
This quote from Shigeru Miyamoto is infamous within the gaming community and often used as a mantra when eager consumers are met with the disappointing news that they are going to have to wait a little longer for a much anticipated game.
Last week was no exception.

Those high school years are pretty luxurious even if we did feel a bit oppressed. Does any-one remember being told not to believe anyone over thirty? Well that's shifted to being told nothing is our fault. The Chinese work for too little pay. The minimum wage is not a living wage. They only hire people with tattoos.

This year presents many opportunities to exercise your civic duties and those opportunities begin in the very near future.
The year 2020 is an election year. When November rolls around, we will have races for the President of the United States, various State Representative and Senate seats and local spots.

The strangest thing happened to me this weekend.
I opened Adobe Premiere Elements, my video editing software of choice, only to see it freeze up during the start-up process.